Yes, the Scoville measure was derived by mixing the pulverized pepper with sugar water until a person could no longer feel the effects of the capsaicin. However, sugar water isn't the most effective way to help with the burning. Fatty foods like dairy products as well as foods high in starch like bread, rice, or even potatos are are probably the two best. The fats in dairy products bind with the capscaisin which block the molecules from binding to the nerve endings and causing pain.

What your boyfriend is describing is pretty common when even just drinking cold water. Your mouth feels fine while the water is cold and in your mouth but once the water is gone the burning sensation comes back.

Water won't put out the fire. I believe it is because the capsaisin is not water soluble, but I'm not sure. Milk, bread and those sorts of things work best when you're eating. I don't know what's best for other areas of the body.

Jim

I actually did the same thing, but it was at work! At my old job, me & the boss were about to head up the elevator & he pulled some hot peppers out for me to take a look at. I, of course, took one out of the bag. After putting it back in the bag & riding up the elevator, I had to go to the bathroom...Long story short, I should have washed my hands before & after using the restroom! :) I ended up having to go home right away with a bag of ice in a peculiar place to calm down the pain so I could drive. I think almost everyone who loves hot peppers has had something like this happen to them.

LOL, should've tried pouring milk down your pants!

Try tomato juice

My worst experience was after I handled some Jalapeno peppers and later that night I took out my contacts. Then the next morning when I attempted to put in my contacts I felt great pain after putting in the first contact. I tried to clean them and I never could get the pepper out of them. Also, this was back when my contacts cost $130 a pair, thus it was an expensive lesson.

Dean

It's happened to me several times but I still hate gloves and never wear them. You get used to it after a while.

Also, when I shower afterwards the pepper juice on my hands mixes with the soap and my whole body burns for about 3 days. My knuckles burn for a while after that for some reason. I guess the skin is thinner there. Last year I washed my hands with lemon juice and it didn't stop burning but it got all the pepper residue off so it didn't spread anywhere else.

This is all great advice, but pouring milk down your pants is still the winner so far.

Jim

I wear gloves (medical latex or nitrile gloves are cheap by the 100 count) not so much to protect my hands but to remind me not to touch anything. I wear them when handling raw chicken for the same reason.

Any Indian cuisine chef will tell you that the best way to combat pepper/chili heat is milk/fats. Thats why raita (dip made from yogurt) is offered in Indian restaurants to cool down the heat of many dishes.

Sorry couldn't help but laugh though! I was cooking with chili's last night and did the old rub your eyes, scratch you face thing. Coulda been worse obviously!

Ever notice how it always seems to happen that as soon as you get right up to your elbows in peppers, your nose starts to itch, or your eye has a twitch, or you just HAVE to scratch that certain stitch in your britches... what a pain in the a$$!! (quite literally) ;)

hahaha...I agree...pouring milk down the pants is the winner so far. ;) Though, I didn't try it.

Hehe... I did the same thing with Jalapeno's and answering nature's call. I think that is something that we have all done.

BTW... biggestdav, who made you the proofreader for the forum? Lighten up.

A milk sitz bath might be the best treatment. Keep this in mind when working with chiles and be sure to have a couple of gallons of milk on hand.

Jim

sorry... biggestdav... didn't realize it was you... LOL. Sorry.

I'm weird When I get the hunan hand, I don't feel that I have it - I learn I have it when other people complain I'm burning them. When I DO feel it is in the shower, later on. Running water over them the following morning makes them feel like they're on fire.

A few years ago, I was mixing up a concoction to spray on plants to keep the deer and rabbits away, and had a 1 lb sack of 40,000 unit powdered Cayenne get knocked over and spilled on the kitchen floor.

I tried to sweep it up. I tried to vacuum it. All in all, I stopped sneezing 3 months later.

hehehe not a problem bruce! I find it comforting that im not the only one who's had a disastrous experience deffo gunna have milk on hand next time (and no doubt there will be a next time!!) to quench the fire.

LOL just read david52's cayenne disaster, sounds like the deer and rabbits snuck in and had their revenge!!!

Chile is a dangerous vegetable, no doubt about it. We are playing with fire.

Jim

I was digging the seeds out of some Carb Red Habaneros (around 400,000 SHU) with my fingers and I wasnt using gloves, and I figured washing my hands in warm vinegar would do the trick...

It did, however under the finger nails was a different story.

About 3 or 4 hours later I started noticing a warm sensation under my finger nails...

Few hours later the pain was UNBEARABLE! And I could not for the life of me get the damn stuff washed out. It felt like I had hot coals under my finger nails and it lasted for a few days.

Sleeping was the hardest part, all the blood rushing to my hands made it worse.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD WEAR GLOVES!

Gloves don't seem to work for me since I always seem to poke a hole in them when cutting habs leading to my fingers burning for a couple of days. I now use a system where my hands don't come into any contact with the pepper. A simple scissor and fork do the trick. Pick the pepper with the fork, cut it into two with the scissor, then scrape the seeds with the end of the scissor. My fingers never get near them and I'm able to work rather quickly.

Richard: wow....400,000 SHU...at least you weren't messin with Bhut Jolokias or even Pure capsaicin and Dihydrocapsaicin. ;)

LOL I have done the no gloves thing a few times, still do
it on occasion, but you'll have to ask my wife about "our"
worst experience!!!! ;)

ButchT

15 years ago i had to work on a Saturday,we had a bumper crop an it was in all at once.We were living in Va. at the time,making salsa and hot tomato juice by the gallon,I got home mid afternoon and wife was bawlin'her poor little eyes out,i called poison control,they even had a name for it-Hunan Hands!they said to soak hands in vegetable oil untilpain went away,oil would break down capsasin.Poor girl was swearing the oil was boiling!Room temp.,finally died down a bit but still had hot sensations for days..i make the salsa now...
2nd error was grinding a bumper crop of red savina several years ago,took a week to get it out of the house!

Ive had many of the above, but the absolute worst was trying 1/2 of a bhut j at a nursery last year. There wasn't any of the standard remedies (that still don't work with these) and I had to jump in my car, and try to drive the three miles home in rush hour traffic. Really blew my mind. I also make 10 gallon batches of chili with 7 to 11 different peppers in it. Ive never worn gloves to dice the chili's and always, ALWAYS am still feeling the heat 24-36 hours later. This would be great in the winter. TiMo

When I was a kid my mother and grandmother bought me a burger at the mall. I finished eating and they talked on and on and on, so I got really bored.

With nothing better to do, I decided to shake out some black pepper into my palm and then I snorted it up my nose.

Don't ever do that.

Lol back in my school boy days one of my friends also snorted black pepper for a dare, he regretted it afterwards when his nose started to bleed!

I don't know if this will work for peppers. But our son decided he'd get into the Icyhot jar in an area he'd be too embarrassed to admit. He obviously didn't know what it was or what it was for. Well we had to call poison control because it was so painful for him and we weren't sure what to do. They then told us to treat it as a burn and pour pure white distilled vinegar on it. Left alone it would have caused the area to blister. So heads up guys, next time you get an itch with pepper juice on your hands try vinegar to stop the burn. :)

I'm sure I've told this story here, before.

Chopping chiles for a chilli one day. Washed my hands afterwards... but not well enough.

A while later I take a pee, then go back to working on my chilli. Groin starts to get warm. Then warmer. Then a little hot. I realise what I've done, hope I can ride it out.

Very hot, uncomfortably so. Getting a little worried.

Starting to sweat, now quite painful. Seriously beside myself with desperation. No relief in sight.

Ok, now I've had enough. Into the bathroom, fill the basin with cold water. A little soap. Washing my dick. No good. Best efforts unrewarded.

Now I'm feeling nausea. Strip off, into the shower, cold water aimed squarely at groin. Thank goodness it's summer.

Crotch now numb from cold water. Pain still there. Considering going to hospital.

Long story short, 30 minutes later lying on bed, shaking with cold, dissipating heat between legs. Feeling woozy. Making many mental safety notes in head.

Never made same mistake again. Never will.

Don't go there. You've been warned.

wow so many followups to this line...well i to have done myself in with the peppers this way..now we are talking pain, fear. you know us guys and our best friend we just panic..lol

now i always wear gloves and wash up good after...

As a simple yet effective bit of advice to all the guys (and this works very well for me)... Next time you're cutting chilis and find yourself in need to urinate... make a little rope out of a strip of toilet paper and use it like a noose to hold/guide yourself through the process. It sounds a bit weird, but from experience, it's nice to NOT have your junk burst into flames and fall off.

;)
Mike

hahaha...that would suck if it burst into flames & fell off.

A man rushes to put his manhood in a glass of milk after working with peppers and scratching himself. His blond girlfriend walks in, sees him and says "Oh, so that's how you refill that thing!"

As a youth, I was slicing pickled jalapenos (yes, from a can) without my glasses on. So I had my head close to what I was doing so I could see. I took a shot of the vinegar/jalapeno liquid in the eye. The best the lady in the ER could tell me was to put some tea bags on my eye. It didn't help.

~james

I (or rather my wife) had a similar experience to what another user mentioned above. I don't want to go into significant detail on a family friendly forum, but I will say that shortly after cutting some jalepeno peppers things got hot...a few minutes later my wife realized that that the "hot" was a little different than normal.

After cutting peppers I wash my hands with soap and apply plenty of hand lotion. Repeat the process two more times.This helps like if I touch the eyes or little scratch on the skin it won't burn.
If mouth burns while eating peppers I will chew few leaves of corriander or apply some corriander paste(with no spices in it) on the toung.

OK, IÂll relate a real bonehead experience from a few years agoÂ

I have a smoker and stumbled across Chipotles on the Internet. Well, being a pepper and smoked food lover I thought hey, what better than smoke dried Jalapenos!

I smoked the babies for five hours using wood lump charcoal and hickory chunks. They were still pretty moist at 10PM when I took them off the smoker. Here is where my story splits into two parts.

I figure overnight in the oven at 150F should dry these out. When the GF smelled smoke in the middle of the night and went to the kitchen she walked into the equivalent of a pepper spray environment. When I got there I could not believe how strong the heat in the air was. Suffice it to say, I did not sleep well the rest of the night. Until we got the house aired out it smelled like it had burned down. It took five days! Suffice it to say I did not sleep well for five more days!

Part two two days later I find some time to grind the dried smoked Jalapenos into a powder. I used a coffee grinder and it created a fine powder. Ground the first batch, lifted the lid and took a smell. The following was a reflex reaction.

1) eyes squeeze shut and a huge sneeze into the powder in the grinder;
2) eyes open up and I take a deep breath through my mouth.

As a result of the cloud of fine Chipotle powder and my stupidity I coughed for 45 minutes and my eyes watered for an hour.

I still make the powder but use a mask and eye protection. I love my Habaneros but itÂs amazing how much heat comes from dried Jalapenos.

Bill

Hee hee these are great! At the end of last season I took all my chilis, cut them in half and dehydrated them. I was doing this in the garage. 7 racks literally full of habaneros. The environment in the garage was less than pleasant let's say. My wife said it was the worst environment she could think of. Wonderful stories. Great thread. TiMo

not as entertaining as u all, but it's all i have to offer : having a severe craving for a hot pepper and then realizing i have none.

this one is in real time and i'm eyeballing some 2 and 3 inch hot yellow wax in my little container garden. should i or shouldn't i ? hmmmmm !

wildlifeman

Great thread. Over 20 years ago, when I planted my first garden it happened to my ex. He was helping me can Hungarian wax peppers. When he was though chopping he had to use the restroom. The worst thing was, we didn't have a clue as to the cause. I was all set to drive him to the emergency room when my brother, the long time gardener, stopped by for a visit. My brother clued us in and, of course, had a hugh laugh at my ex's expense.
...

I'm been wondering this since spring....after I transplanted my chili peppers this spring, the top of my right hand broke out (very red and cracked looking) and burned intensely. BUT, I have very dry skin and had been messing outside with soil, plants etc for days. Can the plant itself burn your skin?

This was funny..I enjoy reading these fun "summer" posts with snow on the ground.

When I was a teenager, my Mom made liver and onions!!!YUCK!!! My Dad says I have to eat some. No way... So somehow he comes up with the idea that if I eat a whole jalapeno out of the jar in the fridge,the entire thing,then I never have to eat liver and onions again.
Hey, that sounds like a great bet to me! All for it,I open the jar,throw back a jalapeno and eat it.

Fast forward a few minutes later. Picture me with a swollen tongue and ice and crying big time.

BUT, I have never once had to eat liver and onions. I still say I won that bet.

Andrea

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha...very funny stuff..
As I was reading some posts I told myself, been there, done that, done that too, that too, have to try that..heheh..

I know how to handle peppers and always use dish gloves, BUT,
while hosting a football playoff party recently, some buddies wanted some bacon wrapped, cream cheese filled Jalapenos..no problem I told myself, while scraping out the meat and seeds, I hear TOUCHDOWN!! I grabbed one glove and pulled it off and with my un gloved hand, (you can see where this is going) took off the other glove. I saw the replay and the back to finish the peppers...put on both gloves and commenced the filling and wrapping of the peppers. Cooked them up and served them.
A few beers later, nature called..and well, unfortunately I'm a righty,,,I paid for it for about 15 mins in the shower..dang, I missed an entire 3rd quarter!
If there is a lesson to be learned it's even though you wear gloves, be smart and don't take off the glove with your free hand.
I've gotta try that milk down the drawers thing..hmm

GK

Oh no! GK I have a similar story... except I accidentally set my roommate up for failure. I had diced a bunch of habs for something and was wearing gloves and even washed the knives with the gloves on. I guess I didn't wash a knife very well because one of my roomates used the knife out of the drainer, then nature called.. ERIN!!! What did you use this knife on?!?! Poor roomie had Hunan Willie! He was frozen in almost fear/pain back in the kitchen. We were able to laugh about it.. in about an hour or so. Now I have a designated pepper knife and cutting board. :)

These posts are fun, yes. After roomie's experience, I was putting some seeds I had saved in an envelope and was NOT wearing gloves. Spencer had to go out at like 3am or something stupid and being half asleep, I rubbed my eye. I was awake in a flash. I was stumbling around trying to find the aloe because I had read to use aloe. I squished it all around my eye. Finally the burning and defensive tears stopped and I was able to open my eye again. What a dummy.

I have to say that I'm pretty smart/safe when it comes to handling peppers. I only grow cayennes of moderate heat but whenever I cut them I wear gloves and even have a bowl of milk or sometimes a water/bleach solution which will also break the capsaicin bonds (I'm told). I've even learned (the hard way) to wear a mask when grinding up dried pods.

Once however I slit a cayenne down one side and opened the pepper like a book with the intention of removing the seeds. One of the 'pores' full of liquid (you know what I'm talking about) burst and squirted the stuff right into my eye, which was a very accurate shot for this pepper, because it was probably 18" away. I quickly (some might say frantically) washed my eye out with milk and to my relief the burning subsided within a few minutes. If I didn't know about the milk thing I would have been in some trouble...

So when my boy was 17 and still living at home. He wanted to borrow 30 dollars to take his girlfriend out! I just so happen to be cutting a habenero open when I noticed another lil pod inside... I told him he could HAVE the 30 if he ate that lil old pod!
He bit it in halve! yelled,screamed,cried and begged God for help!!! To make a long story short. His girlfriend broke up with him for standing her up! I even tried to talk to her.
Well he's 24 now, we still laugh about that!!!!!!!!!!

Never in my life have I found a pepper or dry pepper too hot to eat; and my vindaloo and chile con carne have sent more than a few white men screaming for relief from dragonbreath! But today I met my unassuming match. A slice of fresh green pepper resembling a jalapeno (big deal, right?) in a vietnamese sandwich nearly sent me to the hospital! Immediately upon chewing something was radically wrong - my lips were on fire, my mouth was ooozing saliva uncontrollably! I dashed into the kitchen and drank milk and could immediately tell it wasn't gonna work; water no results, vinegar no effect at all, toothbrushing and mouthwash (alcohol-free and moisturizing) - fire and oozing just seem to get worse! As my chest was tightening and panic was setting in I saw the baking soda and put a heaping tablespoon on my tongue which was immediately soaked into paste with the excessive spit and I could tell that was putting out the fire. This tasted salty. After working with that batch for a couple minutes, I rinsed and replaced it. Problem solved, crises averted. I'm going back to my predictable habaneros.

What was the pepper in the sandwich!?

I am googling vindaloo recipes now.. There is an Indian Market near me so I am sure I will find everything I need there. Can't wait!

Same thing. No gloves, accidently rubbed eye while shopping for roses at Home Depot. Now I'm sobbing in the middle of the store, and the lady in the orange shirt felt very sorry for me, offering me additional help with my roses, thinking I'm crying over rose disappointment. Lesson learned. Always wear plastic gloves. I now have a whole box of those surgical things in my cupboard.

Also, at a previous job, one of our engineers was pure Mexican. His wife would make the hottest ever guacamole now and then, and he would share. He did give someone who was dying from the heat a teaspoon of straight sugar. It did the trick!

I love this thread!!

I have been stung by peppers so many times you would thing I would learn by now. The worst by far was a few years back I decided to make some Habanero Mango sauce. Of course as usual I cut up the peppers not wearing any gloves, rubbed my eyes, and other unmentionables. This hurt but was mere childs play as to the pain that was to be unleashed later.

As my wife doesn't like the smell of my pepper sauce cooking, I decided to fire up the propane burner on the back porch. It was a very hot summer day so to cool down a bit and to help even out the farmers tan I took off my shirt and began the cooking ritual which of course included many adult beverages. The small turkey fryer propane stove sat rather close to the ground so I spent the hour and a half to two hours bent over stirring my yummy concoction. I was tired, hot, and letting my jars cool so I thought it would be a good time to take a nice soothing shower. I turn the water on, get it up to a nice temperature. Step in. I let the hot water cascade over my aching head and back. This is a wonderful end to a hard days work, boy was I wrong. I turned to face the shower head and thought scalding water heated by the power of the sun had been poured over my body. The hot water seemed to activate the now relized chemical burn on my stomach and chest. As I spend the next 20 minutes or so in the now ice cold shower trying to make the burn stop, I relize that leaning over a steamy pot of Habanero peppers for any length of time is not a good idea.

You may ask did I learn my lesson this time, fat chance.

Bill

mine happened about two summers back the first time i ever had a super hot

i was working at a train yard and it was lunch break...one of the guys from the comp shop across the complex had brought in some devils tongues...and word was getting around someone had some unbelieveably hot peppers
....for some reason i seeked them out

i was handed about half a pepper...i really didnt know anything about peppers at this point

i was rolling it around in my fingers...examining it

started chewing it....it was ridiculously hot...

my mouth started tingling...i rubbed it
my nose started running.....i rubbed it
my eyes started watering....i rubbed those too

oh me oh my....i couldnt see for 20 minutes
i was just stumbling around blubbering and oozing from every hole in my head for quite some time

....still dont wear gloves when handling peppers....what can i say im an idiot